2011 Legislative session; snowpack and a plant diagnostician
Washington At Today January 10, 2010 Lawmakers are in Olympia today for the start of the regular session of the 2011 Legislature. Both House and Senate agriculture committees begin meetings tomorrow. Both panels will have a work session on pesticide registration and the Endangered Species Act. The House committee will also hear about the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s cougar pilot project. USDA says the snow pack in the Pacific Northwest into the Rockies is generally average to above normal, though department meteorologist Brad Rippey notes we did lose some last month. Rippey: “We saw a bit of a warm spell during December in the Pacific Northwest where we actually saw some of the early season snow melting off. So snow packs are not quite as robust as the precipitation values might indicate because of the melt off that occurred during that warm spell in December.” And Rippey adds that the northwest was in good shape snow pack wise going into 2010-2011 and that the region should see continued accumulation and that bodes well for normal to above normal reservoir levels. A former Utah State University plant diagnostician is the newest member of Washington State University’s Department of Plant Pathology. Karen Flint will help make the department’s goal of a Pullman-based plant disease diagnostic lab staffed by a diagnostician a reality. Flint will be responsible for diagnosing plant health problems, collecting and reporting data on occurrences of plant diseases in Washington, especially those deemed to pose a threat to agriculture in the state. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Aginfo Net. .
